Gen 12:1 “And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth …”
Some think that Abram was called twice by God: first in Ur of the Chaldeans (Acts 7:2), and secondly here from Haran, so that he might proceed into Canaan. Thus Diodorus and St. Jerome. But more truly it is to be held that Abram was called only once by God, and that this is the same calling of which Moses speaks here and of which St. Stephen speaks in Acts 7. For the words are the same here and there, since Stephen cites these words of Moses; therefore the calling is one and the same in both places. Hence it is clear that this calling of Abram occurred not in Haran, but in Ur of the Chaldeans, as St. Stephen asserts in Acts 7, and likewise St. Augustine (City of God 16.15).
Therefore there is here a prolepsis, “the Lord said,” that is, “the Lord had said,” namely earlier, when Abram was dwelling in Ur of the Chaldeans. For this one divine calling moved Abram first to go out from Ur to Haran with his father, and then, after leaving his father there, to go on from Haran into Canaan, to which God had called him. Nor did Abram rest until he had fully satisfied the first calling of God.
You may object: St. Stephen says that Abram was called in Mesopotamia; therefore Abram was not called from Ur, which is in Chaldea. I respond: St. Stephen takes Mesopotamia in a broad sense so as to include neighboring Chaldea. This is clear from what Stephen adds: “Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran.” Thus Pliny (Natural History 6.26) also counts Babylon, which is the metropolis of the Chaldeans, as part of Mesopotamia.
The Lord. The same and more clearly is asserted by St. Stephen in Acts 7. Therefore Luther fabulously claims that Abram was not called by God but that Shem reported this to him, and he asserts that Abram was called by Shem. He invents this. Note that God spoke to Abram and to other prophets in three ways: sometimes through dreams sent by Him (as in Gen 15:12), sometimes through angels with an audible voice, and sometimes by a spiritual locution in the mind and imagination. In this way God spoke to Abram here.
“Go forth.” In Hebrew: לך לך (lekh lekha), “go for yourself,” that is, absolutely go and depart from your land and your house, never to return there again.
Note: among all men, here for the first time Abram is called by God out of his native land, Chaldea, into Canaan. Therefore here is given a type of the calling of all who are called to faith, grace, justice, perfection, and salvation. Hence Abram is called the father of believers and of the just, and this first because Abram is the first to be called by God out of the midst of Chaldean unbelief, and because his faith and obedience were so illustrious, since he followed God calling him while not knowing where he was being called or where he was going (Heb 11:8). Secondly, because Abram was the first to receive the promise of one to be born from him, through whose faith and grace all were to be blessed. Thirdly, because Abram was the father of the Hebrews, among whom almost alone faith and the worship of God remained until Christ.
Tropologically, concerning the threefold calling and renunciation, Cassian at the beginning of Conference 3 reports that Abba Paphnutius (ch. 6) adapts these to a threefold renunciation. First, he says, we bodily despise all the riches and possessions of the world. Second, we reject former loves, vices, and affections of mind and flesh. Third, withdrawing our mind from all present and visible things, we contemplate only future things and desire what is invisible. These three, he says, we read that the Lord commanded Abraham to fulfill together when He said: “Go out from your land,” that is, from your former way of life, customs, and vices which cling to us by birth as if by a certain kinship and blood-relationship; “and from your kindred”; “and from your father’s house,” that is, from all remembrance of this world which meets the eyes of our sight.
For concerning two fathers — that is, both the one who must be left and the one who must be sought — thus through David, in the person of God, it is sung: “Hear, O daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house” (Ps 44[45]:11). He who says “Hear, O daughter,” is indeed a father, and yet he commands that her father’s house be forgotten, while nevertheless testifying that she is his daughter.
Again, Philo (On the Migration of Abraham), followed by St. Basil on Isaiah 7, and St. Ambrose (On Abraham 1.2), explains the migration from the land as flight from the prison of the body and from pleasures as the guards of that prison. He understands kindred as the familiar use of the senses, which are akin to the mind and soul. By the father’s house he understands the mind or intellect and reason, which as a father sows its powers into the individual parts, assigning operations to each and governing all.
Alcuin (or Albinus), Question 154 on Genesis, says that going out from the land, from kindred, and from the father’s house signifies that we must go out from the earthly man, from the kinship of our vices, and from the world, which is the house of the devil. This is signified by Psalm 44[45]:11: “Forget your people and your father’s house.”
Hugh of St. Victor (Allegories on Genesis 1.2) teaches that this signifies the soul’s departure from earthly delight and from wicked conduct, in which it first remained under the father, the devil, and that being called to the land of spiritual life, the tent is honest conduct, the altar is firm faith, and the sacrifice is good action.
“From your land,” that is, from Ur of the Chaldeans, which is yours.
“From your kindred,” leave your kindred, your Chaldean relatives, idolaters.
“From your father’s house,” indeed also leave your house — your splendid and beloved house — and not only the house itself but also the inhabitants of the house, namely your brother, your father, and your wife, if they wish to remain; leave them and go forth alone to follow God who calls you.
Behold how with so many words God pricks, exercises, and sharpens the faith and obedience of Abram. Thus Abram seems in fact to have left his brother Nahor, an idolater, with his family in Chaldea; for in the preceding chapter (v. 31) only Terah, Lot, and Sarah are said to have gone out with Abraham from Chaldea into Haran. Later, however, either out of desire for his father and brother, or because he was harassed by the Chaldeans after the departure of his father and brother, Nahor followed his own into Haran, as appears in Gen 24:10.
Note here in Abraham the conditions and qualities of perfect obedience. The first is to obey promptly and willingly. For he promptly followed God who called him. Thus Cassian commands monks that, apart from the command of the abbot, no will at all should live in them.
The second is to obey simply, which happens when we submit our judgment to the judgment of the superior. For Abram went out not knowing where he was going. Thus Peter and Andrew, called by Christ, without hesitation, without anxiety about how they would live, not considering how unlearned men could be sustained, immediately followed Christ. Believe that whatever the superior of the monastery commands is salutary; do not judge the decision of elders, whose office is to obey and to carry out commands. As Moses says, “Hear, O Israel, and be silent.” St. Jerome says to Rusticus, and St. Gregory: “He does not know how to judge who has perfectly learned how to obey.”
The third is to obey cheerfully. For Abram went out joyfully with Sarah, Lot, and all his goods. St. Basil (Apostolic Constitutions) says that with the neck of the mind bowed down they took up the yoke of obedience with a ready spirit, going forth into marketplaces, into insults, into stonings, into ignominies, into crosses, into various deaths.
The fourth is to obey humbly. For Abram humbly subjected himself to God who commanded hard things, saying with the Psalmist: “Shall not my soul be subject to God?” and “I have become as a beast before you.”
The fifth is to obey manfully and constantly. For he manfully overcame all difficulties and journeys in order to obey God. Rightly St. Augustine says (Soliloquies 1.15): “Trust God and commit yourself wholly to Him as much as you can; for He will not cease to raise you up to Himself, nor will He permit anything to happen to you except what profits you, even if you do not know it.” Abram, in order to go wherever God called him, surrendered himself entirely to God.
The sixth is to obey indifferently.
The seventh is to obey perseveringly. For Abram throughout his whole life sojourned in Canaan in obedience to God. Thus Christ obeyed unto death, even the death of the cross. Finally, Climacus (Ladder 4) says: “Obedience is the perfect renunciation of one’s own soul and body; it is voluntary death, life without care, navigation without shipwreck, the burial of one’s will, a journey while asleep with one’s burden laid upon another.”
“To the land which I will show you.” God therefore, in calling him, did not reveal to him at once where he must go, but revealed it afterward. Hence the Apostle praises the faith and obedience of Abraham, saying (Heb 11): “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” For, as Delrio rightly says, wandering and uncertain pilgrimage is accustomed to hinder the begetting and upbringing of children, to waste wealth, to stain reputation, and to dissolve friendships. But here God promises to Abram, in reward for obedience, all the contrary things, which He in fact granted to him.
Hence Isaiah (51:2) proposes both the obedience and the reward of Abraham for imitation: “Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone and blessed him and multiplied him.”
Note that God, in calling Abram, revealed to him that he must go into Canaan, as appears from verse 5 and from 11:31; but He did not reveal to him into which region of Canaan he should migrate, for the land of Canaan was large and divided among kings. What is said here should be understood thus: “Come into the land,” that is, into that portion of the land of Canaan which I will show you — in Hebrew אראך (’areka), that is, which I will make you see, which I will show to your eyes.
Pererius holds the contrary, namely that God, in calling Abram from his homeland to exercise his faith and obedience, did not indicate to him either the place or even the name of Canaan. But the former opinion, which Abulensis and Oleaster hold here, and Ribera on Hebrews 11:8, seems more likely.
Moreover, says St. Chrysostom, God called Abraham out of Chaldea because He wished to make him a teacher of all the Palestinians and Egyptians.
Morally, the faithful learn here with Abraham that saying of Nazianzen (Oration 28): “Every land is our homeland, and no land is our homeland; no land will be our homeland, since we think heaven to be our homeland and the world to be exile.” For, as Hugh of St. Victor says (Didascalicon 3.20): “It is a great principle of virtue that the exercised soul learns first to exchange visible and transitory things, so that afterward it may even leave them behind. He is still delicate for whom his homeland is sweet; he is strong for whom every soil is homeland; he is perfect for whom the whole world is exile.”
We are κοσμοπολῖται (kosmopolítai), that is, citizens not of one city but born for the whole world. Such was Adam by nature, Socrates and Diogenes by choice, as Philo says. Seneca boasts (On Tranquility 3): “With a great spirit we have not shut ourselves within the walls of one city, but we have sent ourselves into fellowship with the whole world and have professed the world as our homeland.”
Pontius in the Life of St. Cyprian says: “For the Christian, this whole world is one house.” Therefore St. Basil replied to the prefect of Valens, when he threatened him with exile, that he did not recognize exile, since he belonged to no one place, as Nazianzen reports.
Alexander the Great, as Plutarch relates, after conquering the Persians, joined Persians and Macedonians by marriage and commanded all to recognize the world as their homeland, camps as their citadel, good men as kindred, and bad men as strangers.
What then should a Christian do? Hear St. Augustine (Sentences 17): “Everyone who belongs to the heavenly city is a pilgrim in the world, and while he uses temporal life, he lives in an alien homeland, where among many allurements and many deceptions it is the work of few to know and love God.” St. Cyprian, when the proconsul threatened him with exile for the faith of Christ, said: “He will not be an exile who has God in his mind, for the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”
Gen 12:2 “And I will make you into a great nation.” Cajetan notes that if Abram obeys God who calls him, seven blessings, that is, seven great goods, are promised to him by God.
The first is sovereignty or fatherhood of a great nation, when He says: “I will make you into a great nation,” namely that from you the great nation of the Jews shall be born, equal in number to the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, and great in honor and dignity, in true law and faith, and in victories and other things (Deut 4:7).
The second is abundance of fruits and wealth, when He says: “I will bless you,” that is, men can bless or curse only in word, but beyond that they have no power; I, however, whatever I will and whatever I pronounce, I accomplish. Therefore I will truly bless and benefit you.
The third is celebrity and glory of name, when He says: “I will make your name great,” that is, your name shall be famous through all ages and throughout the whole world, so that Jews, Saracens, and Christians shall glory in the name and lineage of Abraham.
The fourth is the gathering of all blessings, when He says: “And you shall be a blessing.” In Hebrew this is ברכה (berākhāh), “be a blessing,” that is, be so fully blessed in all things that you seem to be blessing itself, so that men wishing to bless someone will set you as the example, saying: “May God bless you as He blessed Abraham,” just as formerly at the inauguration of Caesar they cried out: “May he be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan.”
Gen 12:3 The fifth is that not only to you, O Abram, but also to your friends I will do good: “I will bless those who bless you.”
The sixth is that I will likewise punish those who harm you: “And him who curses you I will curse,” that is, I will avenge and punish your enemies and your injuries; for whoever is your friend or enemy will also be my friend or enemy — which is proper to a perfect covenant and full friendship. Balaam alludes to this in Numbers 24:9: “He who blesses you shall be blessed, and he who curses you shall be counted in a curse.”
Morally, note here how useful it is to have holy men as friends and to be benevolent and beneficent to them, and, on the contrary, how evil it is to detract from them, to hate, afflict, and persecute them; for whoever has them as enemies will feel God as enemy and avenger.
These six are almost all bodily and temporal; the seventh, however, and principal one is spiritual and eternal, concerning which He adds:
“And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” “In you,” that is, in your seed, as is explained in Genesis 22:18, that is, in Christ, who was born from Abraham, as St. Paul explains in Galatians 3:16 and St. Peter in Acts 3:26. For what is given to Christ the Son is also given to Abraham, the parent of Christ, according to canon law. For through this spiritual and holy seed, namely Christ, Abraham was made the father of all believers. That is: through Christ your Son, O Abraham, and through faith in Christ, all nations shall be blessed, that is, justified and made friends and sons of God, and consequently heirs of the kingdom of God, and at some time they shall hear: “Come, you blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Therefore, rejoice, O Abraham, because through Christ your Son you will be the father of all the faithful, the just, and the elect. Thus St. Jerome, Anselm, and others interpret this here and in Galatians 3:16.
Second, it can also be taken thus: “in you,” that is, in your likeness, that just as you were justified by faith, so also all nations shall be justified by faith and not by works of the law. For the Hebrews often use the letter beth (ב) in place of the similar letter kaph (כ), which is the sign of likeness and comparison. Thus Chrysostom, Augustine, Theophylact, and Oecumenius on Galatians 3.
Note here that for God to say is the same as to do, since His word is efficacious: “He spoke, and they were made.” Thus for God to bless is the same as to do good and to bestow good things; and the greater the goods, the greater the blessing. Now since the greatest good is grace and justice, by which we are made partakers of the divine nature, friends, sons, and heirs of God and of heavenly glory, therefore “blessing” absolutely taken signifies by antonomasia this same grace and justice. Therefore this blessing of Abraham properly signifies this justification, both of Abraham and of his descendants, that is, of the faithful who, reborn through Christ, imitate Abraham’s faith. Hence the Fathers rightly explain “they shall be blessed,” that is, they shall be justified; they shall obtain blessing, that is, justice. For God can give us no greater good or blessing than His justice, friendship, and adoption as sons.
“They shall be blessed.” Pagninus translates badly, “In you all nations shall bless,” meaning that they will say, “Would that I were as happy and blessed as Abraham.” For the Hebrew נברכו (nivreḵu) is purely passive, namely of the passive conjugation niphal, and properly signifies “they shall be blessed,” not that they will bless themselves. That would be signified by the hithpael conjugation, and then it would have been written התברכו (hitbareḵu).
Moreover, the version and sense of Pagninus is clearly excluded by the version and sense of St. Paul in Galatians 3:8, for Paul, citing this place, says: “In you shall all nations be blessed,” that is, all families, tribes, and nations of the earth. For just as in Adam all nations were cursed and died, so also in Christ all are blessed and justified.
Gen 12:4 “Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” Abram was born in the seventieth year of Terah. Again, Abram departed from Haran when he was seventy-five years old. Therefore he departed from Haran when his father Terah was one hundred forty-five years old. After Abram’s departure from Haran, Terah lived another sixty years, for he died at the age of two hundred five.
You may ask: how then does St. Stephen in Acts 7 say that Abraham went out from Haran after the death of Terah? Some from Acts 7 think that Terah begot Abram not in his seventieth year but in his one hundred thirtieth. For if to these 130 years you add the 75 years of Abram when he departed from Haran, you will have the 205 years of Terah’s life, so that in that very year, after his father’s death, Abram went out from Haran. Thus Lyra and Torniellus. But this is repugnant to the preceding chapter (v. 26), where it is distinctly said that Terah begot Abram not at 130 but at 70. If you add sixty more years to make 130, you will render uncertain and disturb the whole chronology of Sacred Scripture which Moses has so orderly woven in Genesis.
I therefore respond: Abram, migrating from Ur of the Chaldeans with Terah into Haran, stayed there with his father for a short time, perhaps only a few months, and then, bidding farewell to his father, he went on from Haran with Lot into Canaan, for to that place he had first been called by God. To that calling Abram eagerly and hastily desired to obey. Hence Moses here makes no mention of any deeds of Abram in Haran, but only in the preceding chapter (v. 31) signifies that Abram migrated there from Ur, and immediately in this chapter adds that he went out from Haran into Canaan, to which God was calling him.
Therefore Abram sojourned in Canaan while his father was still alive, for about sixty years. After these were completed, his father Terah died in Haran. Then Abram returned to Haran to bury his father and to take possession of the inheritance; having done this, he returned again into Canaan. Here again God calls Abram and promises the land of Canaan to his seed (Gen 15), after which Abram resolved to fix his dwelling in Canaan.
St. Stephen speaks in Acts 7 of this second going from Haran into Canaan, when he says: “And from there, after his father had died, He transferred him into this land,” where in Greek is μετώκισεν (metōkisen), that is, He settled him firmly, He fixed his dwelling. For after the death of Terah, Abram the second time entered Canaan and there remained firmly and continually.
This therefore is the summary of Terah’s years: Terah at age 70 begot Abram; in the 145th year of Terah, Abram went out from Haran into Canaan; after 60 years, Terah died, namely in his 205th year, when Abram was 135.
Note: from this 75th year of Abraham’s life, when he was called by God out of Ur into Canaan, until the departure of the sons of Israel from Egypt to take possession of that same Canaan, 430 years elapsed, as appears in Galatians 3:17 and Exodus 12:40.
CONTINUE
Comments
Post a Comment